


Love and Loyalty Remix

by Rebelhalen



Category: Revolution (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:54:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22140619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebelhalen/pseuds/Rebelhalen
Summary: Love and Loyalty Remix Some of its different“I’ve seen something like this before and this is undoubtedly worse cuz it’s the patriots… If that number gets read, Jason won’t be Jason any more. He’ll be nothing more than a weapon, he won’t be able to control himself. He won’t have any morals, any feelings. He won’t care about you anymore. You’ll only be an obstacle in his way and he’ll bulldoze right through you.”“He’s a ticking time bomb Charlie and you don’t need to be around him when he goes off.”“What are you saying Monroe?” Charlie asks, looking at the ground, kicking some rocks around.There’s a long pause before Monroe answers. “I’m saying you need to cut him loose.”Charlie looks back up at Monroe then, anger in her eyes. “I’m not going to leave him,” she says. Monroe didn’t like her answer, Charlie could see from the anger budding in his eyes.“He’s dangerous, he’ll hurt you.”Charlie laughed. “Oh that’s rich coming from you,” she said.Monroe’s eyes furrowed but he ignored the comment and the sting of pain and regret that came with it. “He’s going to hurt you, and if you expect me to just stand around and let him then you’ve got another thing coming Charlotte.”
Relationships: Charlie Matheson & Bass Monroe, Charlie Matheson & Jason Neville
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is the same as the original Love and Loyalty

Chapter 1  
During the episode The Stand in Season One Instead of sending Jason away after he warned her about Neville sending an air strike on the rebel camp, Charlie lets him come with her. Danny and Nora still die so Charlie still hardens but she lets Jason get close to her and their love strengthens. But when the bombs drop Jason leaves with his father to search for his mother, while Charlie is not happy about it she understands and Jason promises to return. In the meantime she still goes in search of Monroe and finds him fighting as Jimmy King in New Vegas. The bounty hunter Luke still captures them and they still escape. Monroe does still save Charlie from the men in the bar and they still do take the trip back to Texas. However, Jason is still sent to the patriot reprogramming center. But once he finds out that his mom is still alive and her and his father start scheming again he leaves, disgusted with both of them. He finds Charlie and the gang in Texas right before Monroe and Charlie were about to leave to get mercenaries in New Vegas. Connor never existed. While Jason was gone Monroe and Charlie develop a camaraderie that while neither of them acknowledge, both of them realize how alike they are. And while Miles and Rachel argue about morals in the war against the patriots Monroe and Charlie both have the same outlook on it. They both know that they have to do whatever necessary to beat them. Monroe starts to see Charlie as his “right-hand man” more than Miles and vice versa. They become partners and whenever the group splits up Monroe and Charlie are always together. They become used to fighting at each other’s side and having each other’s back to the point that they don’t even have to think about it anymore. And this is when Jason comes back into the picture. 

“Charlie is NOT going with him, you must be joking.”  
Charlie rolls her eyes and lets out a breath as she overhears her mother.  
“Well do you really trust Monroe to go by himself? Charlie has to go with him.”  
Charlie tries to block Miles and Rachel out and starts loading up the wagon. She glances over when Monroe starts loading the wagon too. He feels her eyes and looks up immediately to catch her gaze before she has the chance to look away.  
“How long do you think they’re gonna argue?” he asks her. Charlie’s mouth curls up at one side as she looks back at Rachel and Miles. Rachel was now pacing and shaking her head with her arms crossed while Miles was trying to placate and convince her simultaneously. Charlie chuckles, still watching her uncle and her mother, “Let’s just say there’s no hurry to get this wagon loaded.”  
“Or we can speed up and leave without their blessing,” Monroe says and Charlie swivels her head back over to him.  
“Their blessing?” She asks, laughing a little, “It’s not like we’re going to get hitched.”  
Monroe smiles to himself at that before putting the last of the cargo into the wagon. “Try telling them that,” he says, nodding to where Rachel was now looking appeased while Miles was heading over to them shaking his head and mumbling to himself.  
“Look, Charlie maybe it’ll be better if I go with Bass and you stay here with your Mom,” Miles says.  
Charlie groans, “But Miles! You know I get cabin fever if I’m left with her alone for too long. Besides isn’t she worried about Bass’s bad influence over you?”  
Monroe laughs at that, and notices how she called him Bass instead of Monroe. He also notices how his stomach did a back flip hearing it before cramming that thought to the back of his brain. Miles glares at Charlie and Charlie raises an impertinent eyebrow. They stare at each other for a long moment, neither of them planning on backing down. Monroe can’t help grinning to himself, enjoying the stare down.  
“Now, now, there’s no need to fight over me, ya’ll both can come along, there’s enough of me to share,” Monroe says, smirking when Charlie rolls her eyes, finally giving up on the staring competition.  
Miles shakes his head and grumbles, “We can’t leave Rachel here alone.”  
“Why not? Oh yeah, because she’s the brains and we’re the brawn, and if one of us isn’t there to protect her, her brains might get splattered,” Monroe grouses, becoming impatient.  
Charlie shakes her head, also becoming impatient and looks off towards the wagon that she wishes she was on right now. Her heart jumps in her chest at what she sees past it. Or rather who she sees. “Jason,” she murmurs.  
Monroe hears her and stops talking dead sentence to look at her. “What?” he asks Charlie, even though he heard her. “Charlie,” he says when she doesn’t answer.  
But Charlie doesn’t pay Monroe or Miles any attention and begins to walk towards Jason uncertainly at first until she sees how banged up he is. She stops walking for a second to stare at his black eye and busted lip and bloody hands. Jason doesn’t stop though and continues towards her. “Charlie!” he exclaims, wondering why she stopped. When she looks up into his eyes, he has to remember how to walk. He can never get used to how beautiful she is. He smiles at her, trying to reassure her. When he smiles Charlie starts running toward him and Jason’s smile widens. He leans down and opens his arms for her and she doesn’t disappoint as she barrels into him. He laughs and wraps his arms around her, lifting her up and spinning her around briefly. He sets her down and cradles her face, lifting it up to look at him. “Jason,” she whispers, “What happened---” But he kisses her before she can say anymore. She whimpers and kisses him back. They make out for a minute before he pulls away to whisper in her ear, “I missed you Charlie.”  
“I missed you too Jason,” Charlie says, pulling back. “What happened? Did you find your Mom? Why are you hurt?” She asks, but he shakes his head and grips her hips, pulling her closer.  
“I’ll tell you all about it later,” he says, and lifts her chin up to kiss her again. She lets him for a moment and tries to push her questions to the back of her mind, but her impatience wins out and she pulls away. He sighs and releases her, “Okay, now,” he says, “Patience never was your best virtue,” he smirks at her, and she can’t help but smile back. He leans in, “But let’s find someplace private because afterwards there will be no more talking. Patience is not my best virtue either,” he whispers in her ear and smirks as she shivers.  
“Nipples!” They both look up as Miles and Monroe approach.  
“You think he’ll ever stop calling me that?” Jason murmurs and Charlie laughs.  
“Maybe never,” she answers.  
“I never thought I’d say this but it’s good to see you. Maybe with you here Charlie will soften up a little and listen to her elders,” Miles says, sending Charlie a look. Jason laughs.  
“Now you and I both know that’ll never happen,” he responds earning a smile from Charlie. Charlie slips her hand into his and he wounds his fingers between hers.  
Monroe feels a little annoyed at the adoring look his warrior partner gives Jason. “Who beat the shit out of you?” Monroe asks Jason gruffly.  
Jason looks at Monroe. “Monroe,” he says, his eyebrows furrowing, “What are you doing here? No offense but the last time I saw you, you were trying to kill us.”  
Monroe smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “And the last time I saw you, you were all snuggled up with Daddio. How is Tom, by the way? Or was he the one who gave you that beating?” he asks, noticing with satisfaction Jason’s grimace.  
“Monroe,” Charlie warns, and his eyes shoot to hers. He raises an eyebrow at the challenge in her eyes but bites his tongue when he sees the pleading there too.  
“Well he’s snuggled up with the Patriots now, with my mother,” Jason says. Monroe and Charlie look back at Jason.  
“What?” Miles asks.  
“Your mother’s alive?” Charlie asks.  
Jason nods before closing his eyes briefly and rubs the back of his neck. By now Rachel has joined the group. “Jason,” she says, “What happened?”  
Jason looks at Charlie, “Well, I guess we’re not going to get to go someplace private,” he mutters to Charlie before beginning his story. 

“He’s not safe,” Monroe says to Miles, later that night. Their trip to New Vegas postponed for the moment.  
“Oh come on Bass, he’s trustworthy.”  
“That’s debatable,” Monroe argues, “But even if he doesn’t sell us out, if someone reads that number, we’re all fucked. Charlie most of all.”  
Miles rubs his hand over his mouth, thinking. “Well, the way I see it,” he says after a moment, “the safest place for him to be is with us, since none of us is going to read that number. We just gotta make sure no one else gets to him and reads it.”  
Monroe shakes his head, “And then what? We let him kill all of us while we try to talk the terminator out of him? He’s a liability Miles. And how do you think Charlie is going to react when that number gets read?... There’s only two ways for this to end. Either he dies or Charlie dies, and you know it.”  
“Yeah, well how do you think Charlie’s going to react when she hears that you wanna kill her boyfriend, hmm? You think she’ll just say, oh you’re right Bass, here, use my crossbow?” Miles responds.  
“I’m not saying we have to kill him, just leave his ass here.” Monroe replies.  
“You really think Charlie would leave him? You think he wouldn’t follow her if she did? Listen, Rachel’s right, you tell Charlie that she can’t be with Jason she’ll just want to be with him more. No, we just need to keep an eye on him.”  
Monroe shakes his head, beginning to walk off. “Fine, but it’s just going to hurt her even more later.”  
“Why do you care so much about Charlie getting hurt, anyways?” Miles asks, a little exasperated.  
Monroe turns around, “Because I don’t want to see her end up like me. Because like it or not Miles, when it comes to grief she’s more like me than you or Rachel. She’s not going to become a basket case like Rachel, and she’s not going to drown herself in alcohol like you. That fire in her is going to explode that composed façade that she’s perfected and I don’t know what it’ll take to pull her out of the deep end.”  
Miles didn’t know what to say to that, so he just told Monroe to head to New Vegas with Charlie the morning after tomorrow so to give her and Jason a chance to catch up. Monroe didn’t want to give them time to “catch up” but he bit his tongue. But he did appreciate Miles saying that he would deal with Rachel. So Monroe left him to mull over his words. If Miles was going to be too pussy to do anything about Jason, then he would have to do something about it himself… What that was, he wasn’t sure of yet. But he was sure about the sick feeling twisting his gut and the dread encroaching into his soul. Something very bad was going to come from this, from Jason, he knew it. How he was going to make Charlie see that, he had no idea, but he knew he had to, even if he made her hate him in the process.

Charlie’s Point of View  
After Charlie learned about what the patriots did to Jason, what Tom Neville, his father did to Jason, sex was the last thing on her mind. She was mad. Scratch that, she was pissed.  
“I can’t believe that asshole would do that to his own son!” she exclaims, on the verge of shouting. She and Jason were sitting in a meadow in the woods, not far from the shack that her family were using. Well Jason was sitting. Charlie was pacing.  
“That selfish, self-righteous, masochistic, psychopathic prick bastard,” Charlie growled, as she flipped her knife over and over again in her hands with each step she took.  
Jason had given up on trying to calm Charlie down, and had just settled to listening to her rant patiently. He knew she was right about his father, but a part of him still wanted to defend him. His father didn’t really know what was going to happen to him when he gave him up after all, but that didn’t excuse the fact that he gave him up in the first place. Unfortunately, however he didn’t know if he would ever stop feeling the need to defend his father, but he damn sure wasn’t going to say that to Charlie. No point in adding fuel to an already blazing inferno. Though a big part of him did feel like it would’ve been better if he had never said anything about the patriot camp. And not just for Charlie, but for her family’s opinion of him too. He’s noticed the way Miles looked at him warily, hates the pity he sees in Rachel’s eyes. But the worst is the reckoning he sees in Monroe’s cold and calculated eyes. He couldn’t quite pinpoint why Monroe bothered him more than Miles or Rachel but whenever Monroe was around his hair stood on end, and he felt uneasy.  
But he knew that if Charlie ever found out or if, God forbid, someone was able to read that number… No it was definitely better to be honest with Charlie. He didn’t want to lose her ever again because of his omissions. He watched and listened to her for a little while longer before standing up. She had been ranting for an hour now, it was time to at least attempt to calm her down.  
He walked up behind her and grabbed her shoulders. She tensed but he pulled her back into his chest and she relaxed a little. He wasn’t sure what to say though so he just wrapped his arms around her stomach and nuzzled his face into her hair. A part of him wanted to just say that everything would be okay, but he didn’t want to lie to her. He wanted to tell her that he would never hurt her, but he knew that that was a potential lie too. He’s seen how that number changed a person after it was read. They weren’t themselves anymore. They weren’t human anymore. They weren’t a soldier, they were just a weapon. They didn’t even get to decide whether to pull their own trigger.  
So he said the only thing he knew would never be a lie. “I love you Charlie,” he whispered.  
“Oh Jason,” Charlie sighed, before throwing her knife on the ground and turning around in his arms. She kissed him, throwing every pent up emotion she had into the kiss, her anger, her desperation, her fear, her passion, her longing.  
Jason kissed her back with equal fervor and soon they were undressing each other. They both felt too desperate for any foreplay and they both came not long after Jason entered her. They slept in the meadow that night, Jason’s arms wrapped around her. 

Charlie was grateful that she didn’t have to sneak into the shack and was just able to get the meds for Jason out of the wagon. She had never had to do the walk of shame and she didn’t plan on doing it now. It was just before dawn, the sun hadn’t risen yet. She had a dream she was falling from a tower and had woken up right before she hit the ground. She had heard once that if you ever hit the ground in a dream that you die in real life, she laughed at the ridiculousness of it, but she still felt a little uneasy. She noticed that the wagon was still fully loaded and wondered whether Monroe was still going to New Vegas. If he was then she would have to go with him. Because she sure as well wasn’t going to stay here with her Mom and Jason, talk about awkward. But she wasn’t going to leave Jason here for Miles and Rachel to meddle with either so he would have to come with her. She was surprised at the weariness that arose from that thought. It probably had something to do with Monroe and the way he had antagonized Jason before. It was obvious that Monroe didn’t like Jason, but she had no idea why except that it might have something to do with Tom. Tom did desert Monroe after all. Well, like it or not, he was going to have to get over it and at least be civil to Jason or she was going to have to have a little chat with him. “Good morning Charlotte.”  
Startled, Charlie dropped the bag of meds and swung around. “Monroe, don’t sneak up on me like that.”  
“Just checking to see if you were aware of your surroundings. It seems like lover boy’s knocked you off your game.”  
Charlie rolled her eyes and turned away from him to put the meds that had fallen out back into the bag.  
“Where is lover boy anyways? He usually follows you around like a lost puppy.”  
“He’s still in the meadow, sleeping,” Charlie said quickly. “What’s your problem with Jason?” She asked.  
But he ignores her question.  
“So that’s where you went last night,” he said, his gaze scanning her body before settling on her neck. The hickies that Jason left on her last night burned under his eyes and she swept her hair from her back to cover them. His eyes returned to hers and she could see that he was grinding his teeth from the way his jaw worked.  
She sighed and dropped the bag back into the wagon. “What is it Monroe?”  
“What is what Charlotte?”  
“I know you have something you want to say so just spit it out, I want to get back to Jason before he wakes up,” Charlie said, “And you still didn’t answer my question,” she added.  
He looked away from her at that and his hands clenched and unclenched as he thought. Charlie waited patiently for a minute before it ran out. Her patience was pretty fickle. She let out a breath and stepped closer to Monroe, wanting him to look at her, but he still didn’t.  
“Bass,” she said and his eyes swung to hers so quick, it was as if he never looked away. She felt trapped by the intensity of his gaze.  
“Charlie,” he started, “I know that Jason wasn’t too forthcoming about that number in his eye to us. I don’t know what he told you, but I do know that he had to have understated what that number does if it’s read and-”  
Charlie interrupted him, “He told me all about it,” she said coolly and turned away from him to get the meds. Jason hadn’t really given her any details about the number, she didn’t really give him a chance to last night with her ranting. But she was so not in the mood for this conversation and she honestly didn’t think she was ready to hear it.  
Monroe grabbed her arm and twisted her back around to look at him. She stubbornly didn’t meet his eyes. “Charlie,” Monroe said, trying to get her to look at him. When she didn’t he grabbed her other arm and shook her. “Dammit Charlie, this is serious!”  
She looked up at him warily. His eyes softened and his grip loosened but he didn’t let go. “I’ve seen something like this before and this is undoubtedly worse cuz it’s the patriots… If that number gets read, Jason won’t be Jason any more. He’ll be nothing more than a weapon, he won’t be able to control himself. He won’t have any morals, any feelings. He won’t care about you anymore. You’ll only be an obstacle in his way and he’ll bulldoze right through you.”  
Charlie shakes her head and pushes his hands off of her. Monroe steps in front of her as she tries to walk past him. “He’s a ticking time bomb Charlie and you don’t need to be around him when he goes off.”  
“What are you saying Monroe?” Charlie asks, looking at the ground as she kicks some rocks around.  
There’s a long pause before Monroe answers. “I’m saying you need to cut him loose.”  
Charlie looks back up at Monroe then, anger in her eyes. “I’m not going to leave him,” she says. Monroe didn’t like her answer, Charlie could see from the anger budding in his eyes.  
“He’s dangerous, he’ll hurt you.”  
Charlie laughed. “Oh that’s rich coming from you,” she said.  
Monroe’s eyes furrowed but he ignored the comment and the sting of pain that came with it. “He’s going to hurt you, and if you expect me to just stand around and let him then you’ve got another thing coming Charlotte.”  
Charlie’s eyebrows raise at that. “I don’t expect you to do anything but leave us alone,” she retorted, grabbing her bag and walking past him. Monroe growled and shoved her against the wagon, pinning her with his body. “Stop walking away from me Charlie, I’m trying to protect you!”  
“I don’t need you to protect me!” Charlie exclaimed.  
“Yes you do if you’re not going to protect yourself. You need to tell him to leave or so help me God I’ll-”  
“You’ll what?” Charlie asked shoving at him. “Hmm, you’ll what Monroe? Kill him?”  
Monroe’s jaw locked and he didn’t answer her. Instead he said, “I know you think he cares about you,” Monroe says, but doesn’t finish his sentence.  
“He loves me Monroe, and I don’t think it, I know it.”  
Monroe looks at her for a long moment. “Do you love him?”  
“What kind of question is that? Of course I do!” Monroe stares at her eyes before his eyes drop to her lips, a smile slowly filling his face. This annoys Charlie.  
“What the hell are you smiling about General?” But even using that title doesn’t make the smile drop, he just shakes his head and steps back.  
“Alright, Charlotte, run back to lover boy,” he says, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He turns around and starts to walk away before adding over his shoulder, “Oh and by the way, I’m leaving for New Vegas tomorrow morning, so be ready if you’re coming.”  
Charlie watched him leave, utterly confused. Monroe had more mood swings than a bipolar pregnant woman in her third trimester, on crack. He drove her insane. He wound her up like no one else ever had before. Charlie took a deep breath, but that didn’t help. There was no way that she could go back to Jason like this, there were only two options, get drunk or hunt. She decided to go with the latter since it wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning yet and she wasn’t an alcoholic like Miles was. 

Monroe left Charlie feeling a little better, even though he didn’t accomplish his goal. But he felt like it was still a step in the right direction. He knew that Jason didn’t tell Charlie about what would really happen once that number was read because he was too much of a pussy. And he was afraid of losing her. Because she didn’t love him. Jason knew it and now Monroe knew it too. Monroe couldn’t help but smile at that. Even if Charlie thought she loved Jason, Monroe knew that if it came a time when she’d have to choose between Jason and herself she wouldn’t sacrifice herself. She would kill Jason to protect herself and that reassured Monroe. It might destroy her to do it, but she would do it if she had to. And Monroe would be there to put her back together.  
Monroe wasn’t cruel enough to hope that Charlie would have to kill Jason though. He knew that was not the best case scenario, but it definitely wasn’t the worst case scenario, and the worst case scenario Monroe now knew was not a possibility.  
So Monroe had a few options on how to proceed. He could either A: Kill Jason. B: Convince Charlie to break up with him. C: Show Charlie that she wasn’t in love with Jason.  
Unfortunately, Monroe knew that A wasn’t really viable if he ever wanted Charlie to speak to him again, if she didn’t kill him. However, he also knew that C would be a very risky mission and had a strong possibility of backfiring. Because if she didn’t realize herself that she wasn’t in love with Jason then she might just think that Monroe had just tricked her into believing it and then she definitely would think she was in love with him, if that made any sense. And B went along with C.  
Monroe shook his head, he no longer felt any better. He knew that the best way to protect Charlie would be to just kill Jason or somehow make him leave Charlie. But selfishly he didn’t want to do that because he didn’t want Charlie to hate him. So Monroe decided that he would just leave it alone for now and see how this worked out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit different from the original Love and Loyalty at the end

Chapter 2

Charlie shot three rabbits and walked back to the shack. She noticed Jason fooling around with the meds in the bag and immediately felt bad for forgetting about him. She walked over to him and he raised his head. He saw the rabbits in her hand and looked up at her. “So that’s what you were doing this morning when I woke up,” he said. “I was a little worried about you.” 

Charlie frowned. “I’m sorry, I meant to be back before you woke up but I got sidetracked. But you shouldn’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can Charlie, that’s not what I was worried about,” Jason says quietly before looking away from her, rummaging through the med bag.

“What were you worried about then?” Charlie asks him, sitting the rabbits down beside the wagon. 

He shakes his head before looking up at her sideways for a moment. He looks back down, “I was worried that you regretted last night,” he says, grabbing a bandage and pulling one sleeve of his shirt over his head so half his torso was bare. He tries to put a bandage on a cut on his shoulder blade and Charlie sits down next to him and takes the bandage from him.

She furrows her eyes at the cut and digs in the med bag for some disinfectant ointment to rub on it. “Why would you think that?” She asks, as she finds some, “It’s not like it was our first time.” She rubs the ointment gently over his shoulder, her face inches away from his neck. Jason shivers and she looks up to find him looking at her lips. 

“I don’t know,” he says, before looking into her eyes. Charlie waits for him to continue and she squints her eyes a little when he doesn’t. There are questions in his eyes and she can’t understand them all. 

She looks down at his wound while she puts the bandage on it and says, “Well I didn’t regret it Jason.”

She looks up, back into his eyes, but there’s still questions there. She’s not sure what to say to erase them and is afraid to ask for a reason she can’t explain. So she kisses him and he kisses her back, hesitantly at first but then fully. The kiss is soft and sweet and doesn’t last long but it seems to help Jason’s mood. 

She is finishing patching him up with Monroe walks up. “Change of plans,” he says, “We’re leaving for New Vegas in an hour, get ready, Charlie.”

Jason’s eyes furrow. “You’re going to New Vegas?” he asks Charlie.

“Yeah, Monroe and I were about to leave last night when you showed up. We need more people to help us fight the patriots and we were going to New Vegas to get some mercenaries.” 

Jason nods and jumps up. “Alright, well I’ll go with you,” he says.

Charlie grins at Jason, the earlier dread falling away now that they were actually about to leave. “Sounds like a plan to me,” she says, and starts packing her overnight bag. 

“Not so fast,” Monroe says and Charlie freezes and looks over at Monroe.

“What do you mean not so fast? I thought you said we’re leaving soon?” she says.

Monroe motions to Charlie and himself. “We’re leaving, but Jason isn’t coming with us.”

Charlie throws down her bag. “Jason is staying with me. So either we’re both going, or neither of us are going,” she says firmly. 

Monroe grins a little at Charlie and Charlie glares at him, ready to punch him. Miles starts over to them, seeing the look in Charlie’s eyes and Bass’s insane smile on his face that he gets when he’s enjoying riling her up.

He steps in the middle of them. “Bass is right Charlie. This morning I was doing some scouting and I noticed the Patriot camp were moving teenagers into their base. It looks like they’re going to be doing the same thing to them that they did to Jason, and I need him with me for intel.”

Charlie shakes her head. “That doesn’t make any sense Miles. What are you and Jason going to do, watch them and twiddle your thumbs? There’s no way that you can free them by yourselves.”

Miles nods. “I know that Charlie, but I’m not completely positive what they’re going to do to those kids. I don’t know if their willing recruits or prisoners, or if they’re going to brainwash them and put that number in their eyelids. Jason is the only one who can be sure what they’re doing with them.”

“Yeah, well, like I said, what are you planning on doing once you figure that out?”

“Well, you’re right, me and Jason can’t do anything by ourselves, that’s why you and Bass need to go get those mercenaries now, and we’ll have a plan by the time you get back. New Vegas is only about five, six days away, if you hurry you could be back in Less than two weeks.”

“But what if that’s not enough time?” Charlie asks.

Jason steps into the circle. “It’s enough time,” he says, “It usually takes about a month to get them fully ready for the number.”

Charlie stares at Jason, more questions popping into her head. “You were there for a month?” she says, a dangerous edge in her voice.

Jason looks at Charlie then, but before he could say anything Monroe interrupts.

“We don’t have time for this, Charlie we need to leave now,” he says impatient. 

Charlie bites her tongue, knowing he was right, that this wasn’t the time for questions. She steps closer to Jason, “You sure you’re okay with this?” she asks.

He nods, “Miles is right we need to find out what they’re doing with those kids,” he says. 

Charlie frowns, dropping her eyes “I know, but…” 

Jason steps closer to her, raising her chin to meet his eyes again. “But what Charlie?” he says softly.

“You just got back,” she murmurs. And Jason shuts his eyes, leaning his forehead on hers. 

“I know,” he says, he doesn’t add that it needs to be done, or that Miles is right and this is the best way to do it. They both know that it doesn’t need to be said. 

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Charlie finally says and he smiles, leaning back to look at her.

“That’s my line,” he says, and she can’t help but laugh. He kisses her then, forcefully, forcing his tongue through her lips and forcing her body to meet every line of his. Monroe clears his throat loudly and they pull away from each other. He wraps his arms around her and whispers in her ear, “I love you Charlie,” and she nods.

“I’ll be back soon Jason,” she says and kisses him chastely one more time. 

“Alright,” Miles says, “Jason, pack your bag, we need to keep an eye on them.” He nods and looks at Charlie one last time before running off to go pack. 

Miles walks up to Charlie and pulls her into a bear hug. “Be careful kiddo, and keep Bass in line,” he says. He looks at Bass, “Keep her safe,” he says to Monroe. 

“Always,” he says, locking eyes with Charlie. Charlie looks at Monroe for a minute, remembering their conversation this morning before Miles begins to walk away.

“Miles,” she stops him, with a hand on his arm. “Take care of Jason. Don’t let them get their hands on him,” she says, and he knows what she’s asking, don’t let them read that number.

He nods, “I will Charlie, he’ll be here safe and sound when you get back.”

And with that Charlie and Monroe finish loading the wagon and start off towards New Vegas. 

“So how are we going to get these mercenaries?” Charlie asks Bass, after riding in silence for a few hours. She was about ready to kill something from boredom.

“From a war clan leader I used to know named Duncan,” he says. 

“And he’s just going to let us borrow some of his men?” Charlie asks, doubtful.

“Hopefully,” Monroe says, not bothering to tell her that Duncan’s a woman. He didn’t feel like talking to Charlie about Duncan. Why not, he wasn’t sure. He guessed that it was because it didn’t really matter now that he and Duncan used to be lovers. And he was afraid that Charlie might read too much into his past. 

They sat in comfortable silence for a while longer until a question started irking Bass. “So why didn’t you ever mention Jason to me when he was gone?” he asks.

Charlie looks at him, confused. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly, “I guess I didn’t think it was any of your business,” she says, though if she was being honest herself, she barely thought about Jason at all when she was with Monroe. 

“Why do you ask that?” she says.

Monroe shrugs, “I just thought with how in love you two are you wouldn’t be able to help yourself, you would want to talk about him to a friend,” he says, though he knows he’s lying about a couple things to see what she’ll say. 

Charlie frowns. “What, you mean that I’m supposed to gossip like some love-sick school girl because I’m in a relationship?” she asks. 

Monroe laughs at that for a minute before sobering, realizing with satisfaction that she actually wants a response. “You’re not supposed to do anything Charlie, except be yourself,” he says carefully. “All I’m saying is that love makes everybody crazy, it’s supposed to,” he says, finishing. He watches her from the corner of his eye as she divulges this. She looks befuddled for a moment before a slow smile forms on her face. 

He turns his whole head to look at her then and can’t stop a smile from forming on his own face. “What?” he asks her, but she doesn’t turn her head. 

He stops the wagon, so he could give her his full attention. He was curious; he had to know what she was thinking.

“Charlie,” he eggs and she finally looks at him that smile still on her face, her eyes sparkling mischievously. Bass mesmerized, couldn’t look away if he had to. 

“Is that why you went crazy?” she asks. 

Bass’s smile drops and he has to look away then. He straightens up, tense. Charlie’s smile slips at the change in his demeanor. 

“Yes, actually,” he says, urging the horses along again, “That was one of the reasons.” He doesn’t elaborate though.

“Bass,” Charlie says, knowing that was a sure way for her to get his attention. Like always, it does, he looks at her.

“Tell me about it?” she asks gently.

He stares at her for a minute. “Her name was Shelley,” he says, his eyes leaving hers as he reminisces, “It was before the Republic.. She was pregnant. She was in labor and I went out for just a second to tell Miles to get some water and towels and when I went back in she was dead.. So was the baby.”

There’s silence for a minute after that as Charlie divulges this information. She stares at him while she thinks about the implications of what this means. About how that changes everything she thought about him before when he was President. She scoots closer to him, and puts her hand on his. He looks at her, his eyes somehow guarded yet vulnerable. 

“I’m sorry Bass,” she says. She doesn’t know what else to say, but that seems to be enough for him. 

Bass nods, placing his other hand on hers. “Thanks Charlie,” he says, “I’m sorry too. For your dad and for Danny,” he apologizes again even though he’s done it countless times before, but it didn’t feel right to him. For her to be feeling bad for him after everything that he’s done to her. He didn’t want her to ever feel bad because of him again. 

“I know you are,” Charlie says, and then before she could change her mind she tells him, “But I’ve forgiven you for that,” his head swings towards hers, shock and disbelief on his face, and regret in his eyes. “And you need to forgive yourself,” she adds, and hope begins to replace the regret in Bass’s eyes.

“Charlie,” he whispers reverently, wanting so many things in that moment. 

Charlie feels the air intensify between them, like it sometimes does. She holds Bass’s gaze for a minute until she feels flushed and drops her eyes, remembering Jason. She pulls her hand away and scoots away from Bass. Feeling awkward, she jumps from the seat beside Monroe and into the back of the wagon. She needs something to do and decides to sharpen her arrows. 

Monroe clenches his eyes shut, feeling so many different emotions that it’s hard for him to focus enough to make sense of them. He had started this conversation to try and help Charlie at least begin to squint at the fact that she might not be in love with Jason and ended up divulging his own tragic love story, his deepest secret. The only other person who knew about that was Miles, and he was there! But even more surprising and definitely more important, she forgave him! Bass couldn’t believe it and knew that it would take a while before he could believe her forgiveness, much less accept it. 

Charlie never ceased to surprise him. And her continuing escalating effect on him never ceased to amaze him. He shook his head and tried to focus on the road and on listening to Charlie. He knows that he needs to give her space now or she might distance herself from him. Give her space now and she’ll come back to him later, push her now and she’ll leave him later. 

So he keeps his mouth shut and they continue on in silence for a few more hours, even though this silence isn’t as comfortable as the last one. 

The sun begins to set and Monroe hears Charlie’s stomach growl. He looks over at her. “Let’s make camp and find us something to eat,” he says and she nods, ready to get off the wagon and stretch her legs. They find an opening in the woods near a stream and Monroe tells Charlie to go hunt and he’ll take care of the horses. “Yell if you need me,” he says and she nods.

He unhitches the horses and puts a halter on them and ties them to a tree, giving them room to graze. He gets some feed out of the wagon and puts it in two buckets and sits them in front of them. They neigh gratefully and start chomping. He goes to the stream and gets some water for them before going back and getting water for himself and Charlie. He washes his hands and face in the water and takes a bandana out of his pocket and dips it in the water and puts it around his neck. It was near the end of August but it was still hot and felt more like June. He builds a fire to cook their dinner and waits for Charlie. He begins to get worried after a while and is about to go into the woods and find her when she walks out of the clearing. Her cross bow slung across her back and two rabbits in her hands. She smiles at Monroe. He smiles back, “I was getting worried bout ya,” he says.

She rolls her eyes, but says, “There were hardly any animals around.” He nods and walks over to her. She looks at him questioningly when he holds out his hand. 

“I’ll dress and cook them, why don’t you go clean yourself up,” he says. She looks like she’s gonna argue for a second but she hands them over before walking off to the stream. 

“Wait,” he says as an afterthought, “there’s some soap in the wagon.” He lays down the rabbits and gets into the wagon and digs around before finding it. She smiles at him warmly when he gives it to her, and his hand brushes hers. She walks down a ways so Monroe can’t see her and undresses. She could use a bath. She gets in the water but the deepest it’ll go is waist deep so she ducks her head under to get her hair wet. She suds up her hands with the soap and scrubs her hair. She runs the soap along her body, getting the grime from the past few days off her. And then she gets her underwear and washes them with the soap. She wishes she remembered to bring an extra pair of clothes so she could wash her whole outfit but oh well. She wrings out her panties and that’s when she hears something behind her. 

She pauses just for a second, before continuing to wring out her underwear, listening carefully. She didn’t know what was behind her, if it was an animal or a lone man or a few men, all she knew was that she was buck ass naked and that she didn’t want to clue them in that she heard them, if they were trying to sneak up on her. She heard a stick snap not just a yard or two away from her and she lets herself freeze now, waiting. A big sweaty hand grabs her arm and she grabs the wrist, twisting it, almost breaking it, until it lets go. She swings around and stands to look at her attacker. Or attackers, apparently. Her heart rate picks up as four men stand in front of her. All of them looked older than her, but younger than Bass. They weren’t all necessarily ugly, but they looked and smelled like they hadn’t had a bath in a week. 

She doesn’t give them any more time to stare at her. She attacks the one with the hurt wrist first, grabbing it again and twisting it, this time breaking it for sure and the man lets out a scream. He tries to grab her with his other hand but she dodges it, and spins around, feeling another of them at her back. But she doesn’t turn around in time and the man hits her in the face, she almost goes down but she straightens up before she can hit the ground. Apparently, they weren’t going to fight her one by one but gang up on her and she starts to feel afraid.

She expects the man to come at her again and is a little surprised when he doesn’t and says, “Now, now, we don’t really wanna hurt ya. Definitely don’t wanna ugly that pretty face, we just want to have a little fun is all. We can make it good for you too, if you don’t fight us.”

“Doubt it,” she says and punches the man in the face, using all the force in her shoulders and abs and twists her wrist quick at the end, breaking his nose. He stumbles back and Charlie knees him in the crotch making him go down to his knees when the third guy grabs her by her hair. She lets out a growl and wraps her hands around the hand in her hair. She hated when someone pulled her hair, she thought it was such a pussy move. She tries to hit him but he was too far away and her arms weren’t long enough. She tries to make him let her go by hitting his arm but he was too strong. 

He throws her to the ground and she immediately starts to scramble up, it was imperative that she did not get pinned to the ground. But the man kicks her in the stomach and she immediately feels all the breath leave her, and she gasps for air. And before she can catch her breath the man pins her and straddles her waist, her arms stuck between his thighs. Oh shit. She didn’t want to have to call out for Bass since she was naked but knew that she probably should’ve already done so.

“Monroe!!” she yells as loud as she can before bucking up, trying to get the man to rise off her waist and onto her stomach a little bit so she can flip him. But he tightens his thighs around her as if he’s in a rodeo and she starts to panic, especially when the guy unbuttons his pants. “Bass!” she yells again, her voice high pitched from panic and fear. 

She hopes that the guy will pull his pants all the way off so that she had a chance to scramble out from under him, but the guy was smarter than he looked and only unbuttoned and unzipped. “Hold her down!” he calls to his friends, as he throws her arms above her head and begins to position himself between her legs. Before Charlie can even think, the guy with the broken wrist has his knee bearing down against her wrists and the one with the broken nose is helping the last one hold her feet while the guy on top of her positions himself fully. She feels tears start to well up as she watches him pull out his ugly hairy dick and yells for Bass one more time. But before she can get his name all the way out she sees Bass over the man, and he snaps his neck with his hands and yanks his body off of her. She lets out a cry of relief before yanking her legs out of the other men’s grip as Bass uses his swords to slice the neck of the one at her feet open. She pulls her legs up over her head and wraps them around the guy who was above her neck and squeezes with all her might until she feels him go limp. 

She pushes him off of her and stands on shaky feet while Bass finishes him with a stab through the throat. Bass turns around, fury in his eyes, and she forgets about being naked as he looks at her face. She feels tears rolling silently down her cheek but doesn’t bother wiping them away. She takes a few steps towards Bass and cuddles herself against his chest, wanting to feel safe. Bass wraps his arms around her, and tries not to think about the guys he just killed or the fact that if he arrived just a minute later, Charlie would’ve been raped. He tries not to think about Charlie’s naked body pressing against him, tries not to think about her breasts squishing against his chest or her long legs touching his thighs. Her skin feels so soft as he rubs his hand soothingly up and down her back. 

As Charlie’s heart rate slows and her breathing returns to normal and her eyes dry she realizes the position she’s in and she freezes in Bass’s arms. Bass feels her tense up and stops rubbing his hands across her back. “Are you okay Charlie?” he asks against her head and she nods. “Do you want me to check you over?” he asks and Charlie lets out a shaky laugh and shakes her head. Bass grins.

“Bass,” she whispers. 

“Yes Charlie?” 

“Can you close your eyes?”

He nods and closes his eyes. Charlie pulls back slightly checking to see if he’s peeking before grabbing her clothes and walking behind him so he’d have to turn around to look at her. She dresses quickly, keeping an eye on his back. When she’s fully dressed she says “okay, you can open your eyes now.”

Bass opens his eyes and turns around. He can’t help but roam his eyes over her body, feeling a little regretful that he didn’t let himself do so before. When he doesn’t see anything bleeding his eyes rise to her face. Charlie’s cheeks are red and she looks embarrassed. She won’t meet Bass’s eyes. He steps closer to her and raises her chin to look at him. “You have nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of Charlotte,” he says, and she stares at him for a moment before nodding. 

After eating her meal ravenously, starving after her fight, she quickly feels nauseous from both eating too fast and remembering the men holding her down and she pukes until her stomach is empty. She takes a swallow of water that Bass hands to her and swishes it in her mouth before spitting it out. She drinks half of the water before handing it back to Bass. She tells him she’s going to bed and goes in the tent that he set up. He keeps first watch. 

Charlie feels exhausted but it takes her a couple of hours to fall into a fitful sleep. Not an hour after she fell asleep she wakes up screaming, dreaming about being raped from those men. Bass quickly opens the tent flap and looks for any potential danger. 

“It’s okay Monroe, I just had a nightmare,” she says tiredly. “I guess I should take watch since I can’t sleep,” she says, but Bass shakes his head. 

“No, I don’t want you out there by yourself tonight,” he says and for once Charlie doesn’t argue with him. 

Bass starts to back out of the tent, not knowing what else to do for her when she stops him with his name. He turns to look at her and watches as she bites her lip and fiddles with her blanket, glancing up to look at Bass for a second before looking down again.

“What is it Charlie?” he asks, kneeling down in front of her. 

She glances back up at him before looking away, shaking her head. “Never mind,” she says quietly.

Bass’s eyes furrow in confusion, before he realizes that she’s nervous. He swallows. “Charlie, you know that if you need anything from me, all you have to do is ask. I’ll do whatever you need me to do,” he says and kneels closer to her, sitting back on his knees. 

Charlie stares up at him, the nervousness in her eyes being replaced with resolution. “Can you sleep with me tonight?” and Bass’s eyes widen and he chokes a little. 

“I mean can you hold me tonight?” she says quickly, seeing Bass struggling. He looks at her for a moment and Charlie begins to regret asking, “It’s just that I can’t sleep after what happened and I just thought that maybe if you were here I’d feel safe enough to sleep. But if it’s weird, just forget I asked,” she says quickly, feeling like she needed to explain herself. 

Bass’s heart skips a beat before lodging itself in his throat. He clears his throat, “Sure Charlie, I’ll stay with you tonight.” He swallows and feels his heart rate pick up and he tries not to let it show how badly he wants this as he lies down next to her. He expects her to put her back to him and is pleasantly surprised when she turns around to bury her head in his chest. He pulls the blanket over them and wraps his arms around her, ignoring the uncomfortable position his arm is in between Charlie and the ground. He hopes that Charlie can’t feel his racing heart beat as she moves her legs in between his. 

“You cold?” he whispers and she nods, and he wraps himself around her tighter. He rests his head against her cheek and can’t help but feel that they were made for each other at how well they fit together. Besides his arm, he’s never felt more comfortable lying down with a woman in his life. In one ear Charlie hears Bass’s heartbeat and is surprised to find it beating quickly, but she doesn’t say anything, figuring he was just a little nervous about doing this. She was surprised to feel that she wasn’t nervous, now that he had his arms and his legs wrapped around her. She needed this, needed to feel safe after what happened and Bass always made her feel safe, even when she was trying to kill him, she always instinctively knew that he would never really hurt her. In her other ear she hears Bass breathing against it and she starts to fall asleep, being lulled by Bass’s breaths and heartbeat. Bass feels and hears Charlie fall asleep, feels the tension roll out of her and hear her breathing become deeper. 

He stays awake as long as he can, just enjoying being able to hold her, knowing that he might not ever be able to do so again. He also listens for potential danger, but mostly he just listens to Charlie’s breathing. After a while he falls asleep also, lulled by Charlie’s breathing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is completely different from the remix

Chapter 3

The next morning, Charlie wakes from the best night sleep she’s had in a while. She starts to stretch but feels a hand wrap around her. She tenses up for a moment, ready to attack before she remembers last night. She tries to get up but Bass’s hand tightens around her so she rolls over to look at him. He’s lying on his stomach, his head turns towards her, one arm wrapped around her and one leg tangled around her leg. She looks at him for a moment, feeling something warm building slowly in her chest before she wraps her hand around the one that’s holding her and pushes it off of her. She rolls away from him quickly as he unconsciously grabs for her. 

  
She tries not to think too hard about how safe and comfortable it felt for Bass to hold her or what that meant. She remembers Jason and feels regret even though under the circumstances she knew that Jason should understand her needing comfort after nearly being raped. 

  
She thinks about making breakfast out of the few supplies they have but decides she needs to let off some steam and go hunting. She briefly wonders if it’s a good idea for her to go hunting alone after last night and immediately feels angry from it. She’s hunted all her life alone and she refused to let something that didn’t even really happen affect her like this. So she straps a sword and a knife on her belt, another knife on her calf and puts her arrows across her back. She picks up her crossbow and starts towards the woods.

  
Bass wakes up from one of the best nights sleeps in his life and immediately reaches for Charlie, a smile on his face. When he feels nothing but emptiness beside him he looks over and immediately feels ill from not waking up with Charlie next to him. He quickly puts on his boots and gets out of the tent but he doesn’t see Charlie anywhere. He calls her name but gets no response. He tries unsuccessfully to not feel panicked by this after what nearly happened last night and he grabs his swords and wraps them in their belt around his waist.

  
He looks around and notices Charlie’s crossbow and weapons missing and feels a little relief. She probably just went hunting, he thinks, and tries to calm the emotions battling inside him.

  
He felt grumpy that Charlie wasn’t there when he woke up, angry that she would leave without him after what happened last night, and a little disappointed because of both those reasons. He starts towards the woods.

  
Charlie is just about to shoot a doe when she hears her name. She lets out an exasperated sound between a sigh, a cry, and a groan as the doe runs off. She turns around, “Bass! Did you not see the deer that I was just about to shoot!?” she says loudly. When she looks at him she feels a little weary from the angry look in his eyes.

  
“I don’t care about that damn deer Charlie. What were you thinking, coming out here alone?” he says and Charlie begins to feel angry.

  
“I’ll do whatever I damn well please Monroe, I’m a grown woman,” she says and Bass’s eyes flash. He grinds his teeth and clenches and unclenches his fist to keep from grabbing her. He takes a deep breath, thinking about what to say. He knew saying the wrong thing right now would push her away and that’s the last thing they needed right now.

  
“You could’ve at least told me you were going hunting,” he says and before he can stop himself, “You might not have been scared hunting alone, but I was scared for you.” He sees surprise cross her face before he looks away.

  
“Come on,” he says, “Let’s go back to camp.”

  
“But I didn’t catch anything,” Charlie says. Bass looks at her then about to say that they could just eat from their supplies until Charlie says, “You can hunt with me.”  
Bass opens his mouth to tell her he doesn’t have a bow but shuts it and nods. He follows behind her quietly as she hunts, loving to watch her. He had always known her to be a skilled hunter. She had an eye for details.

That night Charlie and Monroe stop in a small town to replenish their supplies and get something to eat in the town bar. They had traveled all day without stopping and were starving. After getting some more feed for the horses and some medical supplies they head to the bar.

Immediately Monroe was on high alert. There were mostly men in the bar and the few women in it looked like prostitutes, which was a bad sign for Charlie. Most of the men were drunk, the place wasn’t quiet. As soon as Charlie walked inside behind him the room quieted down as most of the men in the bar stopped talking to gawk at Charlie.

Monroe didn’t like it, feeling protectiveness and perhaps possessiveness welling up inside him. He immediately grabbed a hold of Charlie’s waist and pulled her against him, their sides rubbing against each other.

Charlie’s immediate reaction is to tense up, but relaxes soon after, remembering almost getting raped the night before. She was more than willing to let Bass protect her in this way for once. So instead of trying to pull away from him like she would normally do, she turns in his arms to put her arm around his chest. She didn’t like all the looks she was getting and wanted to just be invisible.

For the first time in her life, she felt weak, felt like she needed a man to protect her. She didn’t like the feeling, but didn’t have enough energy to fight it. She kept seeing the men who almost raped her flashing in her mind. So she would play the dependent girlfriend for the night. 

As soon as Bass walked into the bar he felt his senses kick into high alert. He wrapped his arm around Charlie and pulled her to his side, feeling his protectiveness kick into over drive. He was a little surprised when Charlie cuddled closer to him and rested her arm across his chest. He looked down at her face for a moment and felt his chest tighten at the emotions he saw across her face. He felt angry immediately, knowing those men did this to her and wishing that he tortured and castrated them before he killed them. He knew that he was going to have to protect Charlie tonight and felt grateful for her trust in him. He quickly walks them over to the edge of the bar, closest to the door and guides Charlie to sit in the corner against the wall.

The bartender almost immediately walks over to them, eyeing Charlie just a little bit. Charlie doesn’t even look up, so Bass orders for her, hearing her stomach growl. When he’s gone he scoots closer to Charlie and speaks quietly to her, “You want something that’ll help the anxiety,” he asks and Charlie looks up at him immediately. The look she gives him is between pleading and a glare and Bass has to look away from her. He calls the bartender back over and orders three whiskeys. Charlie looks at Bass questioningly as the bartender hands them their drinks. 

Bass downs the whiskey like its water and pushes the other two towards Charlie. Charlie feels torn. A big part of her wants to drink until she can’t even remember her own name, but another part of her doesn’t want to drink at all. She doesn’t want to make herself vulnerable. Bass watches as she battles with her emotions. His own emotions begin to twist inside him seeing her like this, but he tampers them down. He leans in close to her and whispers, “Charlie, you don’t have to drink if you don’t want to, but you have to know that you’re safe with me. I won’t ever let anything happen to you again. So, if you want to get drunk tonight, get drunk, either way I’m not drinking anymore so I can take care of you.” 

Charlie grabs one of her drinks and wraps her hand fully around the glass. She straightens up and looks down at it. She knocks it back quickly before grabbing the other one. As she waits a minute for the other one to settle, she says quietly, “I don’t want you to have to take care of me.” 

Bass can’t help but smile a little at her words, not feeling offended at all. That was the Charlie he knew, tough as nails, stubborn, and independent. “I know,” he says, watching as she downs the other one. Charlie looks up at him. 

“Yeah, I want to get drunk tonight, but I don’t want to do it here,” she says, “Can you buy a bottle of whiskey and take it with us?” she asks and he nods.   
When the bartender brings out their beef stew not shortly afterwards he asks for a bottle of whiskey and gives him a few diamonds. Charlie eats quickly. She had lost a lot of her appetite lately ever since that night so she had to eat fast or else she would just pick at it like a bird. Bass always ate fast and is ready when she is. He grabs the bottle and starts to wrap his arm back around her waist but she walks in front of him, her head high, a daring look in her eye out the door. Bass smiles and follows her out. 

By the time they get back to camp Charlie is a little tipsy, having been taking some pulls from the bottle on the walk there. Bass keeps a good notice on their surroundings and Charlie. When Charlie reaches the camp, she hands the bottle of whiskey to Bass and he looks at her questioningly. 

Charlie rolls her eyes, “Come on Bass, you can drink, it’s just the two of us.” So, Bass takes a pull on the whiskey to please Charlie before handing it back to her. 

Charlie feels restless now. She wants to do something other than get drunk. She can’t go hunt because its pitch black now and that wouldn’t be the best idea. She takes a long pull from the whiskey before screwing the top back on and sitting it down. She looks at Bass who is now taking off his sword belts. She waits for him to put his swords down and look at her. Bass looks at Charlie staring at him. “What?” he asks. 

“You wanna fight?” she asks, a glint in her eye. Bass scratches his nose, not sure if that’s a good idea.

“Uh I don’t know Charlie, I don’t think it be very fair seeing how you’re drunk,” he says. 

“I’m not drunk, Monroe. I do have Miles for an uncle,” she says and Bass grins at the ground.

Charlie takes that time to punch him in the gut. Bass bows over a little bit, looking up at Charlie. “That’s payback,” she says and Bass rolls his eyes.

“Well if it’s time for pay back that means I’d have to find a crow bar,” he says and Charlie laughs, before hitting him again in the same place. Bass dodges it a little bit and can’t help but smirk as Charlie bounces around him like a boxer. He didn’t want to hit her, but he wouldn’t mind taking her down. As Charlie moves in to punch his jaw, he grabs her fist and twists her around until her back is against his chest. 

Charlie giggles a little bit before stomping on his foot and kicking his knee. He lets her go, even though he could’ve hung on to her. His leg stung but he knew her next move would’ve been a head butt and a knee to the crotch. And he didn’t want a broken nose or broken balls. Charlie moves like she’s going to punch him in the face again and when Bass dodges she kicks him in the ribs. Bass winces.

“That hurt Bass?” Charlie smirks, taking that moment to drink some more whiskey. As soon as she puts the lid on it and sets it down Bass moves to kick her and when she dodges he punches her in the arm. He only punches about 40%. 

“Come on Monroe, you punch like a girl,” she says, trying to get him riled up. Bass grins at her, and lets Charlie punch him in the arm. He punches her in the arm again, this time giving about 75% and catches the wince on Charlie’s face. Charlie quickly covers it up and kicks him in the shin and in the ribs. She moves her foot back down for balance and rises it again to kick him in the head. But Bass catches her foot, and grins as he keeps it at face level and backs her up, making her hop on one foot. He laughs at the embarrassed look on her face and lets her foot go. 

Irritated now, Charlie punches Bass a good six times in his torso before finishing with his jaw and Bass stops laughing. Charlie smirks just a little bit when she sees him wince and rub his jaw. “You need a little whiskey to ease the pain?” Charlie says in a sing song voice and Bass glares at her. 

He moves at her quickly, leaning down like he’s going to tackle her but at the last minute he wraps his arm around her neck moving behind her to put her in a choke hold. He makes sure that she can still breathe a little bit, even if she can’t really talk. “Tap out, Charlie,” he says but Charlie shakes her head. “Charlie you’re gonna pass out if you don’t,” he says. Charlie quickly moves her left leg behind his leg and pivots, so that she gets behind him. Bass was not expecting that, he was enjoying being flush against her and Charlie gets out of the choke hold, she tries to get his arm in an arm lock against his back, but Bass moves quickly to get away from her. 

Bass smiles at her as Charlie catches her breath, her face a little red. “I forget sometimes that you’re left handed,” he says and winks at her. Charlie rolls her eyes at his wink and gets the bottle of whiskey. 

“You’ve had enough yet?” Bass asks but Charlie shakes her head around the bottle neck as she takes a few big gulps. She cringes as it goes down and hands him the bottle. Bass takes it from her, covering his hand over hers as he does. He takes a long drink out of it and puts the lid on it and sets it down. As Bass is leaning over Charlie tackles him and laughs as she sits on his back, his face in the ground. Bass rolls over quickly so she’s straddling him, a glint in his eye. It takes everything in him not to thrust his hips against her so she could feel what she did to him. Charlie’s laugh fades as she looks at Bass’s face. She felt like she could be frozen in place from the look in his eyes and her smile drops. She swallows and moves to get off of him and that’s when Bass strikes. He flips her over, so he’s got her pinned, but he allows a little room between their hips and stomachs, so she doesn’t feel his erection that’s thankfully tucked into his boxers. 

He smiles down at her and holds her wrists in place beside her head. Charlie feels immediate panic from the position and Bass frowns as he watches fear cross her face. He gets off of her quickly before she needs to ask him. 

Charlie sits up and rests her forehead in her fingers and her elbow on her raised knee. She closes her eyes as she allows the images of the men on top of her to pass under her eyelids before she shakes her head and opens her eyes. That was all she was going to allow.

She looks up to see Bass watching her, a troubled look on his face. “You know I would never take advantage of you, don’t you?” he says, and Charlie shakes her head.

“I know, Bass, I know, you don’t have to say it. It had nothing to do with you,” she says. 

They sit in silence for a moment until Charlie tells Bass to pass the alcohol. She drinks a lot of it before offering it to Bass. Bass takes a pull from it and hands it back to Charlie. She waits for the rest to settle for a minute before finishing the bottle. She felt drunk now. Not seeing double and puking drunk, but she started to feel very hot and heavy and thought that a bed would be nice right now. She figured she should probably head to sleep before she did start to feel nauseous.  
Bass sees her start to nod off and picks her up. Charlie immediately protests but he shushes her and lays her down in the tent. He moves to walk away but stops when she hears her say his name. 

“Stay,” she says, and he feels torn, feeling like maybe he would be taking advantage of her, even if all he did was hold her. Today for the first time on their trip he remembered Jason when he was straddling Charlie and she was afraid. He didn’t know what this meant to Charlie, or even if she allowed herself to think about it, but he knew that when they got back it was going to kill him to see her go back to Jason. 

He wants to ask her about him and couldn’t decide if her being drunk was a better or worse time to talk about it. He decides that that would be cowardly of him and starts to take off his boots. He was going to take what she offered until she didn’t offer any more. This time she turns her back to him and he wraps himself around her spooning her as they fall asleep. 

The next morning Bass again woke up without Charlie next to him. Little did he know Charlie had done that on purpose, in denial of what was happening between them. It’s just because of what happened, Charlie told herself. Its completely normal to be vulnerable and need comfort after what almost happened she told herself. Jason would understand she told herself. Bass… was just doing it out of friendship, out of partnership, she told herself. But for some reason that one was harder to think then the rest of them. She didn’t even want to think about what her mother and Miles would think, so she didn’t. She told herself that tonight she would sleep alone, no matter if she slept or not. No matter if she had nightmares or not. She would not ask Bass… Monroe to sleep with her. And if he offered, she would turn him down.

Bass was grumpy as he got out of the tent, but he tried not to let it show. It wasn’t like he could tell Charlie why he was grumpy. That he was grumpy because he wanted to wake up next to her… Wanted to wake up next to her every day for the rest of his life. The thought was soft, almost in the background of his mind. But it, surprised Monroe.

While he knew that he was in love with Charlie, he never really thought about being with her forever. He only thought about that with one woman- Shelley- and she had died along with their child. After that he had never thought of a relationship with a woman as being forever. He only thought of it as for now. But Charlie was different. Hell, he thought, he felt more chemistry between him and Charlie then he even had with Shelley, though he didn’t like to admit it for many reasons. Reasons like Miles, and Rachel, and their age difference. But also, because it frightened him. He had turned into a psychotic paranoid dictator after losing Shelley. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if he lost Charlie. He just felt in his gut that it would be worse, even if they hadn’t even been together yet, and that scared him even more. 

Charlie didn’t acknowledge Monroe as he came out of the tent and he carefully watched her while he put on his sword belt and packed up the tent. She seemed to be in her head- thinking, a frown on her face. Bass didn’t like it. She made them oatmeal and coffee but still didn’t acknowledge Bass even as she handed him his bowl and cup. 

“Charlie?” Bass finally asked, after they were finishing eating. “Are you ok?” 

Charlie jerked like Bass had scared her, which made Bass worry even more. She didn’t need to be out of it like this. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Charlie said, finally looking at Bass, but not really seeing him, but instead kind of looking through him. She put on a big fake smile as she said it and then quickly began to clean the bowls and cups and put them away. 

Monroe saw right through it, but he was confused. What was up with her? He decided not to push it, knowing that he wasn’t ready to say anything about their relationship, because he knew that she wasn’t ready, and that she would just push him away, and that was the last thing he ever wanted from her. Even if she was with Jason. He would take her anyway he could have her, rather than risk not having her at all. They packed up the wagon and hitched the horses in silence, and then rode in silence for a long time.

Bass finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Charlie,” he said, “what are you thinking about? You’ve been in a whole other world all day.”

Charlie sighed and looked towards the trees to her right, away from Bass. She didn’t answer him.

“Are you still thinking about those guys…” He asked, the sentence dropping as he was unable to continue.

Charlie briefly thought about lying to him and just saying that yes that was all it was. But thought against it. She had always appreciated that her and Monroe were always honest with each other. 

“Yes… and no,” she finally said, finally looking at Bass. 

Bass furrowed his eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

Charlie hesitated but then shook her head. Monroe let out a small breath of frustration.

“Well is there anything I can do?” he asked, his voice almost pleading now. 

Charlie froze for a second but then looked at him. She looked straight ahead and then back at him and back ahead and back at him for a few moments, running her hands through her hair and Monroe started to feel an angst in his gut. She was nervous. And he had a bad feeling. 

“Monroe,” she finally said, and he was immediately disappointed from the use of his surname “I feel like we’ve gotten into a good relationship over the past few months. One of partnership, of friendship, that we never needed to talk about before and yet knew that it was also something we had to kinda keep secret from people like… my mom and even Miles,” Charlie began.

Monroe swallowed nervously. “Yeah,” he said, not knowing what else to say or where this was going, but somehow, he knew that he wasn’t going to like it. 

“Well, these past couple nights,” Charlie began, and then stumbled. She swallowed and cleared her throat, “These past couple nights…” she didn’t know what to say about them and honestly didn’t want to talk about what they were. “Well, nobody can know about them,” she finally said quickly, “We have to keep it a secret, as if it never happened…None of it,” she said, and Monroe knew that she meant the part that she was almost raped as well. His gut twisted, he felt like he was losing a piece of her. His face twisted before he could set it in place, but Charlie just missed it. She looked at him and he was all unreadable. 

“Bass?” she asked, and he ached but didn’t let his self show it. 

“Ok Charlie,” he said quickly, not looking at her, and she let out a breath of relief. 

“Thanks Monroe,” she said, and she finally seemed to get back to herself. 

Monroe closed his eyes for a moment and forced himself to say, “Of course Charlotte.”

It hurt him to say it, hurt him to have to pretend like none of it happened, but knew that it wasn’t the right time to declare himself. Charlie wasn’t ready. He forced himself to get back into their old partnership routine and tried to feel happy that Charlie finally seemed like herself again. They were three more days away from New Vegas. And while for the past two days he had felt nothing but optimism and hope and looked forward to holding her at night. Now he dreaded it. Dreaded not holding her now that he knew what it was like to hold her. Dreaded pretending like it didn’t happen. That she hadn’t felt perfect in his arms, more perfect than any other woman had ever felt in his life. And he actually looked forward to seeing Duncan, to getting to New Vegas. Before he was dreading it, dreaded the idea of Charlie thinking there was someone else, no matter how long ago it was. But now he looked forward to it. It’s not like she would care anyways. At least afterwards he would have the mercenaries to order around to distract him. 

That night Bass slept outside of the tent while Charlie slept inside the tent. Well she didn’t sleep at all really. Kept waking up from nightmares, but she refused to get Monroe.

After what she had said she knew she couldn’t ask him to sleep with her again, and she felt regretful that she had had that conversation with him already. Now she had to deal with not being able to sleep for two more days. She didn’t know what she was going to do when they actually got to New Vegas. She knew that once they had the mercenaries, there was no way that her and Monroe would be able to sleep together then. There was too big of a chance that it got back to her Mom, or Miles… or Jason. And then she felt guilty. She was full of contradictions. Regretful that she couldn’t sleep with Monroe, but guilty that she was regretful of that because of Jason. 

Monroe got more sleep then Charlie. And as soon as he saw Charlie and the dark circles under her eyes he knew she didn’t sleep at all, and his gut turned. He felt bad for her. He hated that those guys had fucked with her head so bad. Hated that he couldn’t say anything about noticing the dark circles under her eyes. Hated that he couldn’t offer her comfort, now that she had put up a line between them. Thankfully, Charlie at least dozed on the road. But only briefly, then she would wake with a start, and Monroe had to be careful to catch her before she fell off the wagon. One time she burst out with a cry and buried her face in his chest for a moment before quickly pulling away embarrassed. 

“Its okay Charlie,” he had told her gently. But they both knew that it wasn’t okay. 

“When am I going to get over this Bass?” Charlie asked, pleading in her voice, “It’s not like they raped me, why is it getting to me so bad?” 

Monroe looked at her, hurt on his face, “it was still traumatic for you Charlie. It’s going to take time… Hopefully by the time we get back to your mom and Miles… and Jason you’ll be fine,” he said. 

And Charlie looked away, “I have to be,” she whispered. “I can’t tell them what happened,” she said looking back at Bass. 

And Bass swallowed, knowing deep down that she was right. It would just cause drama. And it wouldn’t really help Charlie. And it damn sure wouldn’t help their partnership. It would get Miles and Rachel and Jason in between them… Like they weren’t already in between them enough. 

“Look,” Monroe says, “If it takes longer, we can just take longer to get back to them.”

“But what about the mercenaries?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about the mercenaries,” he said, “I’ll make sure they keep their mouths shut. We can make it like we need intel from another town or something, it would be easy,” he said. And Charlie nodded, hope beckoning on her face again.   
Bass was glad to see it. 

“But what about the soldiers?” Charlie asked, the hope being replaced by panic.

“Don’t worry Charlie, Jason said it could take a month or longer for them to get the number, a few extra days travel isn’t going to make a difference. We’re not going to be too late,” Monroe said. And Charlie thought before nodding finally. 

“Okay,” she whispered. 

But that night Charlie couldn’t sleep again. And she was exhausted. Finally, she got out of the tent and stared at Monroe sleeping for a long time before she finally laid next to him and pulled his arm around her. And shortly after that she began to doze. 

Bass woke in the middle of night to find Charlie next to him, shaking from cold, but asleep. He smiled. He picked her up, careful not to wake her and took her in the tent. He laid her down and brought his sleeping bag in and then zipped the tent up. He wrapped his body around her. His face going into the top of her shoulder, his face resting on her cheek. His left arm underneath her neck and his right arm tight around her stomach. His chest flush to her back and his legs flush against hers. He put both sleeping bags on top of them and breathed Charlie’s scent in and tried to stay awake as long as possible to enjoy the feeling, before he finally fell asleep. 

Monroe woke first and for a long time debated leaving to save Charlie some embarrassment, or staying to enjoy it. He finally decided with staying. Besides who knew when was the next chance he would have to do this?

When he felt Charlie wake, he kept his arms wrapped around her, his body wrapped around her, but pretended to be asleep. He was curious about what she would do. Every other time he had wakened to find she had left, without even knowing if she did it immediately or enjoyed being in his arms before leaving him. 

Charlie woke to find Bass completely wrapped around her. His arm was under her neck, his other arm slithered up over her stomach to rest between her breasts at her sternum, holding her to him. His face was buried in her neck. His back was flush with hers, even his legs… And she felt something hard at her bottom. Her eyes widened and she jerked a little bit at realization that it was Monroe’s morning wood. She calmed herself by saying that it was only natural, that it happened to every boy or man in the morning. She remembered some embarrassing mornings with her brother even. She knew she should get up, but she seemed frozen in place. This felt good she thought. She slept good she thought, and she needed that sleep. 

It feels even better than with Jason, she thought, and immediately was surprised at the thought. She swallowed and quickly buried that thought deep. She burrowed back into Bass for another minute before finally pushing his arm off of her and pulling away. 

She looked at him sleeping for another minute, and a part of her ached. But she quickly pushed that feeling away. She was confused. She didn’t know what was happening to her. She felt guilty, almost like a hoar, for having these feelings about Monroe while being with Jason. She felt like in a way she was cheating on Jason. At that she quickly put on her boots and her jacket and left the tent quietly. 

As soon as he heard the tent zipping behind him Monroe opened his eyes and smiled. She had stayed in his arms for a few minutes, and that few minutes felt like an hour to Monroe. She could bury her feelings all she wanted, but now Monroe knew that she did have feelings for him. Even if it was just feelings of being comforted by him holding her. It made him feel hopeful and he was on cloud nine for the rest of the day. 

Charlie didn’t even bother bringing up again that they needed to keep it a secret. She was ashamed that she had allowed it again but at the same time she was angry that she was ashamed. She needed it. She had to sleep. She hadn’t slept good in 48 hours. And besides Monroe actually seemed in a good mood today and she didn’t want to chance ruining it by reminding him of the secrets between them again. But she was worried. Worried because they had one more night before they would be in New Vegas. That meant that she possibly had only one more night of decent sleep before she would have to go a week all the way back to the base. One night wasn’t enough, she found herself repeating over and over through out the day. How am I going to go a week without sleep? She kept asking herself. 

She bit her lip. How was she going to talk about this to Monroe? How was she going to tell him that she wanted to prolong them getting to New Vegas? That she wanted him to hold her while she slept until she could sleep on her own again. When she didn’t have nightmares about being raped anymore. And how long would that take? Another few days? A week? Longer? 

Monroe noticed Charlie’s anxiety and turmoil. She actually groaned and started rubbing her face manically. He stopped the wagon.

“Charlie.” he said. “What’s wrong?” He asked, pulling her hand away from her face. 

“What do you think about going to a bar and getting drunk tonight and renting a room?” Charlie said quickly. 

Monroe furrowed his brows for only a moment before he realized what she was asking. 

“You know what, I think that would be a great idea,” he said smiling. And Charlie smiled back at him. 

“Great, I’m starving, let’s stop at the nearest bar,” she said, even though it was still light out. 

Monroe nodded, but inside while elated he was worried. He was going to have to find something that would help her sleep… and he didn’t know how Charlie would feel about it. And he liked being the only thing she knew that would help her sleep, but knew that was selfish of him. He promised himself and Charlie, that in the next town, he would find something to help her sleep…Something to help her sleep without him. 


End file.
